This specification relates to software applications used on more than one computer.
Software applications that are distributed, either for free or for profit, are often accompanied by software licenses. Such licenses are digital permits containing descriptions of rights to use of the applications. Software licenses include single device licenses that limit the use of the software to a particular computer. Such licenses can be sold one at a time, or in bulk (e.g., seat licenses). Software licenses also include floating licenses, which are a pool of licenses that can be shared among multiple computers by contacting a license server that manages the pool. The conventional floating license model enables a software vendor to sell a software product based on a concurrent-user limit as an alternative to selling the product based on seat licenses. In addition, software applications sold directly to end users often employ Internet/Web based product action licensing schemes.
Many software applications also provide output file formats to allow one to save work done using the application to a system file on a computer. Such saved files can then be sent (e.g., emailed) to another computer to be opened there using the same application. In addition, there are some applications that employ server backing, where data retained by the application for later use is stored on a server computer via a network, so that this application data is accessible in the future when the same application is used on another device connected to the same server computer via a network.